Celebrating community
This week millions of people were drawn to west London for the 60th anniversary of the Notting Hill Carnival. What began in the 1960s against a background of racial tension and social division has become a remarkable celebration of Caribbean heritage, music, and creativity as a way of bringing a divided community together.
Yet the headlines have also raised legitimate questions about Carnival’s value. Hundreds of arrests were made during this year’s event relating to drugs, weapons, assaults and sexual offences. Such behaviour should neither be excused nor minimised. Grace does not call evil good. Rather, grace enables us to confront what is destructive while still recognising the dignity and potential of people.
Perhaps there is a lesson here about how we see people and communities. It is possible to acknowledge what is wrong without allowing the wrong to define everything that is good. Millions of people participate in Carnival, while the vast majority do so peacefully and joyfully. Carnival’s history shows us that communities can emerge from painful circumstances and create something beautiful.
The gospel goes further: God does not turn away from humanity because of our brokenness. In Jesus Christ, God entered the human story, embraced humanity in its brokenness, and reconciled us to himself through Jesus’s death and resurrection.
In Christ, God is creating a new humanity where the barriers that separate people are being overcome, in which division gives way to reconciliation, suspicion to relationship, and hostility to love. Now that is something we can truly celebrate.
In Christian love,
Barry Robinson
About the Writer:
Barry Robinson is the Deputy National Ministry Leader for GCI in the UK and Ireland.